The authority files are mainly used in descriptions of cultural and scientific resources with a main focus on authority control and subject indexing in German, Austrian and Swiss libraries and library networks:

The PND incorporates names of persons important for descriptive and subject cataloguing as well as for cataloguing and scientific projects on local, federal, national and international level.

The GKD is the relevant authority file for German and foreign corporate body names in the German speaking area.

The SWD provides a normed, terminologically controlled vocabulary. It consists of concepts, events, places, buildings and other entities that are subject of a resource.